[Lias] setting up mail server with postfix

Setting up an internal mail system

This was set up on a Red Hat 8 machine using postfix as the smtp server and cucipop as the pop server.

DET has assigned my school Parkes High School the hostname parkes-h.schools.nsw.edu.au

I gave the linux machine the name mail.parkes-h.schools.nsw.edu.au

DET reserves a number 21 for mail servers so I gave it an IP address of 10.12.217.21

(10.12.217.21 is reserved for a proxy server)

Postfix was a part of a default Red Hat 8.0 server install but it always pays to check on the packages that are being installed from the word go so make sure you check that it is installed.

Also at this time it is work ensuring that the ftp server package vsFTPD is installed so you can ftp files to the linux machine.

Cucipop can be obtained from:

http://www.vergenet.net/linux/cucipop/

cucipop is pretty simple and runs without fiddling but postfix was another matter.

With help from this list I configured Postfix to send mail internall around our school and with some further configuring got ITD to enable relaying of mail to and from outside the school. This took a little more fiddling with the main.cf file.

Also if you want to be able to send and receive on your account to the outside world you need to contact ITD and ask them to create an MX record for you. The initial person you talk to on the ITD help deks will probably not me able to do this for you but they will log your call, give you a job number and someone will eventuall get back to you.

Here is a direct number you might try:

02 9942 9641

here are the key entried you need to make in the main.cf file:

/etc/postfix/main.cf

these are my setinga so you will need to alter them to suit your own situation.

myhostname = mail.parkes-h.schools.nsw.edu.au

mydomain = parkes-h.schools.nsw.edu.au

myorigin = $mydomain

inet interfaces = all

mydestination = $myhostname, localhost.$mydomain $mydomain

mynetworks = 10.12.217.0/24, 127.0.0.0/8

relayhost = [smtp.schools.nsw.edu.au].

Many thanks to various members of this list - especially Andrew Dorrell without whose help I would have floundered utterly.

I attach a copy of my postfix main.cf

Peter Hughes

Parkes HS